This invention relates generally to the food service industry and relates, more particularly, to the means and methods used to wrap a silverware within a napkin to form a wrapped arrangement for use in a place setting.
The steps commonly involved in manually wrapping silverware (i.e. also referred to in the art as eating utensils or flatware) within a napkin for use in a place setting at a table of a restaurant or other food service establishment include the steps of placing a napkin in a spread condition upon a flat surface, positioning a set of silverware in a gathered condition upon the napkin, and then wrapping the napkin about the silverware until the entirety of the napkin is wound about the silverware. If desired, the wrapped arrangement can be banded to help maintain its wrapped condition until ready for use (i.e. placed at a table). These manual steps are quite time-consuming and at large eating establishments, normally require a great deal of manpower which could otherwise be devoted to other tasks.
There is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,688 an apparatus for automatically wrapping a napkin about silverware. This apparatus, however, is limited in that it does not automatically place a napkin in a condition for accepting silverware placed thereon nor does it automatically place the silverware upon the napkin. Instead, these steps must be manually performed before the wrapping operation is effected. It would be desirable to provide a napkin-wrapping apparatus which automatically places a napkin in position for accepting silverware placed thereon, as well as automatically wrapping the napkin around the silverware.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved apparatus and method for automatically wrapping a napkin about silverware.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which is capable of preparing a large quantity of wrapped silverware arrangements in much less time than would be required to manually prepare the wrapped arrangements.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which performs the wrapping steps automatically.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which is uncomplicated in construction yet effective in operation.